Tag Archives: music history

1972 The Fifties-revival movie “That’ll Be The Day,” starring Ringo Starr, David Essex, Keith Moon, Billy Fury and Nashville Teens’ John Hawken, begins filming in England. It’s the story of a lonely, alienated young man (Essex) who finds an outlet for his frustration playing rock and roll.

Most of the actors in the film are musicians who’ve lived through the late ’50′s and early ’60′s era of rock, lending the film a feel of authenticity. The movie is loosely based on the Harry — Read more

1969 Paul McCartney denies being dead in response to a storm of rumors about his demise.
The rumors, which were then concentrated in London, started when McCartney was involved in a car accident in 1967. The Beatles Book fanzine denied the story and it faded away.

However in September of 1969, a Drake University student newspaper published the headline story “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?” The paper talked about a rumor going around the campus that McCartney had died in 1966, and had been replaced by a double. The paper cited various “clues” from recent Beatles albums, — Read more

1968 Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is awarded Best Album at the Country Music Awards.Johnny Cash first became interested in Folsom Prison in 1953, when his Air Force Security Service unit watched a movie called “Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.” The movie inspired Cash to write his hit song “Folsom Prison Blues,” which was his second single on Sun Records.

The song became a favorite of prisoners around the U.S. Many of them wrote Cash, asking if he would perform for them. His first prison show took place in 1957, at — Read more

The film, starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, becomes the second highest grossing movie of 1961. It goes on to win ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. West Side Story won more Oscars than any other musical film to this day.

On June 21, 1948 Columbia Records introduced the 33 1/3 rpm microgroove record album. In many ways this invention gave birth to the modern pop album. Of course, all kinds of albums were (and still are) released as vinyl records, but pop albums were the first to be structured around the format. The length, number and order of songs were designed around the 22 minute per side limitation.

Prior to the invention of the 33 1/3 LP albums were on 78 rpm records. The 78s could only hold approximately 3 -5 minutes — Read more

Did you know Buddy Holly’s iconic single “That’ll Be the Day” was inspired by a John Wayne movie? That’s right! Holly was inspired to write his breakthrough hit after he and drummer Jerry Allison saw The Searchers. “That’ll Be the Day” was Wayne’s signature phrase in the 1956 Western.

At the time, Holly had been recently dropped by Decca Records (yes, the same label that infamously passed on The Beatles). As a part of his agreement with Decca, Holly was not allowed to record any songs on any other label — Read more